MikeRayburn.comhttps://mikerayburn.com
Keynote Speaker, Comedian, World-Class Guitarist, AuthorSat, 09 Dec 2017 19:12:43 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.1How To Discover What Others Are Missing… The “What IF? Mindset.”http://mikerayburn.com/discover-others-missing-mindset/
http://mikerayburn.com/discover-others-missing-mindset/#respondSat, 09 Dec 2017 19:12:43 +0000http://mikerayburn.com/?p=4402Here's how to discover what others are missing, how to revolutionize with what's right in fron of you. Every major invention, victory or achievement in human history began in some way or another with a bold, “What IF?” question.

Dubin took simple, decent quality razors out of the chained, electric vault at the drug store, and offered to mail them to you once a month for a few dollars.

In 2011 Dollar Shave Club was born.

In 2017 he sold DSC to Unilever for, wait for it…

One Billion Dollars.

Michael Dubin didn’t invent anything.

He didn’t offer some crazy, breakthrough technology.

He saw a few simple problems…
*razors are way too expensive;
*they’re locked up and literally chained at the store, which makes the buying process demeaning and the buyer feel like a criminal;
*guys are usually not big shoppers; when they need to shave they’d rather use an old blade than go to the store.

Dubin thought, “What if… we sell good razors for a fair, low price and mail them to you?”

He then took action… and it made him a billionaire.

The entire point of my “What IF? Keynote Experience” is this:

Those same opportunities are sitting in front of you right now!

I want you to discover them.
I want you to see what others miss.
I want you to create abundance.

How? Everything begins with your mindset.

As I have said countless times…

Every major invention, victory or achievement in human history began in some way or another with a bold, “What IF?” question.

You need the “What IF? Mindset.”

So, if you’re with a major company who’s been at least somewhat dominant in your industry, realize that your downfall will be coasting, assuming things will always be this way.

Remember what I always say about coasting… it only happens downhill.

Your real competitor will be that industrious little startup who, from the outside has seen what you don’t about your own business.

Your solution… is to create, right now, a culture of “What IF…?” A culture of innovation, risk-taking and regular, intentional reinvention;

…you need the “What IF? Mindset.”

And if you’re the new guy/girl who notices something about a product or process that others don’t, this is your opportunity, and the solution is the same…

…you need the “What IF? Mindset.”

That idea you’ve always had, that glitch in the market you see… Jump on it!

One quick way to do that is to ask the following questions:
-What is missing from the marketplace?
-What bothers you about a product or service?
-What is everyone else not seeing?
-What industry, business or product hasn’t been updated in years?
-What problems do you have or see and how would you solve them?
-What if you did? And… what if it worked?

And… Why Not YOU?

Please share this on social media with the links below.

Live Truly, Truly Live,

Rayburn

PS Creating the “What IF? Mindset” for organizations is what I do. I have a larger Winter/Spring schedule at this point than I’ve ever had but there are open dates. Please contact my awesome management team at CMI to allow me to inspire your teams. 877-307-7403 or hit “reply” and email us.

]]>http://mikerayburn.com/discover-others-missing-mindset/feed/0Watch What Others Do, Imitate What Workshttp://mikerayburn.com/4341-2/
http://mikerayburn.com/4341-2/#respondTue, 26 Sep 2017 21:42:29 +0000http://mikerayburn.com/?p=4341Studying what successful people do, how they do it, and copying them is a great formula for success. I am in the middle of a lot of reinvention so, while I may not be perfect, I've done it a lot... so perhaps you could observe conceptually what I'm doing and try the same for your career.

One of the first messages I learned as I began to embrace personal development is: Success leaves clues.

So follow them.

Watch and study people who are successful, do what they do, and you’re likely to get similar results.

In particular, find people who are successful in an area at least similar to what you want to create or achieve.

I don’t mean copy them, and certainly don’t steal from anyone.

But emulating or imitating is integral to art and business.

And here’s the cool thing about imitating those you respect:

You can’t do it.

Though you’ll try you’ll fall short, wonderfully short.

But what you come up with as you try will in time become your own style.

Also, I learn from any kind of success so I freely borrow concepts (not specifics) from many different areas.

That said, here’s an idea: Copyme.

If my last two tips about the necessity to constantly reinvent, both as organizations and as individuals, resonated with you and you’re wondering how to reinvent for yourself or your organization, why not watch me; I’m immersed in it right now.

I don’t say that out of pride or ego, I just know a lot about reinventing myself professionally as I’ve it done more than a dozen times.

So each week I’ll share what I’m doing to reinvent.

Each sweeping move will also be part of a much larger change which won’t be evident for a few months.

I invite you to watch me and learn what you can, even if what you learn is to not do what I just did (which is a valid lesson, by the way).

I may not do it right, well, or in the same way you would.

However, I will do it, and that boldly.

Rayburn Reinvention #1…

CMI Speaker Management. Six weeks ago I amicably switched from my agent of 5 1/2 years and signed with CMI Speaker Management. CMI is amazing, the gold standard, and this is the necessary foundation of changes to come.

Rayburn Reinvention #2…

Guitar Giveaway. Now, in every keynote I surprise an attendee who’s willing to speak up and share an a new idea he or she has come up with during my program, with a brand new guitar! Seriously.

Rayburn Reinvention #3… ***

What NOW? …YourWhat If Action of the Week (or What IF Action Videos). I have created and launched a resource for companies to sustain the excitement from their conferences and really implement my keynote message and supercharge their results. (See below)

]]>http://mikerayburn.com/4341-2/feed/0Time Breaks Everything… The Case for Intentional Reinvention. (Part 2)http://mikerayburn.com/time-breaks-everything-case-intentional-reinvention-part-2/
http://mikerayburn.com/time-breaks-everything-case-intentional-reinvention-part-2/#respondFri, 08 Sep 2017 22:05:38 +0000http://mikerayburn.com/?p=3366Do people - people like you - need to reinvent? YES! staying still, even when what you’re doing now is working, will leave you behind because, and again… Time Breaks Everything. To remain relevant in your career you’ve got to update and improve your skills.

During the first test drive – a used 2014 SUV (I never buy new) – I asked the salesman, who’d been selling this brand for 2 1/2 years, a simple question about the vehicle.

He puzzled over it and said, “I’m not sure, I’ll ask someone about that.”

I was surprised.

I would have thought that after 2 1/2 years he’d know all the basic info about all of his company’s vehicles.

Later, in the showroom, after that pretentious talk they always have with the sales manager, the price he brought to us was so high as to be insulting, and I knew because I’d done my research.

We left and ultimately bought the same make and model, a used 2017, better condition, for the same price.

Ugh.

***

In my last tip I made the case that all companies and organizations must practice intentional, proactive, strategic reinvention.

I shared that I believe this not an important option to consider, it is mandatory – the very life and death of your organization.

So let me ask you this...

What about you?

Do people – people like you – need to reinvent? YES!

The way we do everything – managing finances, communicating with our families, having relationships, listening to music, driving cars, fighting fires, teaching – hasn’t just changed, it is constantly changing.

Again, staying still, even when what you’re doing now is working, will leave you behind because, and again…

Time Breaks Everything.

To remain relevant in your career you’ve got to update and improve your skills, whatever you do.

What I really want you – as part of my Virtuoso Community – to do is see this as an amazing advantage and opportunity.

As much as people look at CE – Continuing Education – as a requirement, a chore, imagine what would happen if you decided to get crazy about learning?

What if you began to read, research, practice and expand in your field, not because you have to but to increase your value?

What if you chose to become the expert – a Virtuoso – in your field?As I say in every keynote I deliver, “Most adults are coasting; and coasting only happens downhill.”

That car salesman last week was a great example of coasting.

He could have learned all there is to know about his vehicles in 2 1/2 years, and he assumed that I was equally uneducated.

Well, hold on… as much as I’ve said that, it turns out there is a fatal – yes FATAL – flaw in that mindset:

Time breaks everything.

We assume that if we keep doing what is successful it will keep being successful.

That is no longer true, if it ever was. (It wasn’t, it just used to take longer).

Everything around us is changing, including the pace of change itself, which is increasing exponentially.

That includes the environment surrounding you and everything you’re doing.

Therefore, when you perform the same service or make the same product in the same way, just by staying the same you’re falling behind; the world is passing you by rendering your offering broken or obsolete, even though you’re doing what’s working.

Unfortunately, most companies and individuals don’t realize this until it’s too late.

Trains lost to trucks. Network news and local newspapers are losing to cable and internet. TV is losing to cable and internet. Blockbuster lost to Netflix. LPs and cassettes lost to CD’s lost to MP3, as record stores lost to iTunes. Film lost to digital. Cabs are losing to ride-share. Internal combustion will lose to Tesla (a regular automobile has approximately 1000 moving parts; a Tesla has eight. You think that won’t catch on?).

In some of those cases the ones who lost are not gone, but they’ve suffered massive, irreparable loss of marketshare.

Here’s my most important point…

All these organizations that lost were doing exactly what made them successful right up until the bottom fell out.

They figured, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Do you imagine a point where the pace of change will stop?

No, from here it will go exponential.

So, what’s the solution?

Intentionally Reinvent.

This is EXACTLY why I deliver my “What IF Keynote Experience…” to teach organizations how to intentionally and consistently reinvent and get entire organizations, not just leaders, on board with it.

]]>http://mikerayburn.com/3356-2/feed/0How Losing Made Me A Winner!http://mikerayburn.com/losing-made-winner/
http://mikerayburn.com/losing-made-winner/#respondThu, 18 May 2017 20:31:05 +0000http://mikerayburn.com/?p=3267I wish this was a great “David and Goliath” story but it’s not… Goliath won this one.
I spent most of the match on my back, in pain, fighting just to not get pinned.
I lost 17 to 1… they call that a “superior decision.”
The “superior decision” gave McLean five teams points, instead of the six they’d have gotten had I been pinned.
I felt I like an embarrassment to the team, but they welcomed me back to the bench.
But check this out… As a team, we won!

]]>http://mikerayburn.com/3253-2/feed/0Predicting the Future the Easy Way (Part Two)http://mikerayburn.com/3249-2/
http://mikerayburn.com/3249-2/#respondThu, 23 Mar 2017 06:20:08 +0000http://mikerayburn.com/?p=3249Look, unpredictable events, good and bad, will happen. In fact, they happen so often that you could say they’re… predictable? The real variable in predicting the future is you.

Any time you set a goal to which you are truly committed you are predicting the future.

When you take action on that plan you are literally creating the future.

Most people who might go to a psychic are looking for some special angle or some hope for what’s coming their way, when I just want to say…

That hope is in YOUR hands!

Look, unpredictable events, good and bad, will happen.

In fact, they happen so often that you could say they’re… predictable?

The real variable in predicting the future is you.

If you are taking full responsibility for you outcomes; if you are proactively (and prayerfully) imagining, designing and taking serious action on your future, you will fare well through the predictable storms of life.

Better yet, when the equally predictable windfalls of life happen you will benefit exponentially!

Take action on this. Today.

Set, commit to and act on a goal right this moment.

Choose a habit to drop and one to add.

Trust me, when you take responsibility for your future and act on it, you and I can both predict your future… and it looks really good.

]]>http://mikerayburn.com/3249-2/feed/0Predicting the Future the Easy Way (Part 1)http://mikerayburn.com/predicting-future-easy-way-part-1/
http://mikerayburn.com/predicting-future-easy-way-part-1/#respondTue, 14 Mar 2017 23:15:37 +0000http://mikerayburn.com/?p=3242It turns out any of us, even a non-scientific guy like me, can see the future if we’ll learn where and how to look.

So here’s what you do: find two or three futurists (based on science, not crystal balls or political agendas) and read their blog/LinkedIn posts regularly. Compare them all to get an idea of where things are headed.

It’s as simple as that.

Here’s what will happen after just a few posts: You’ll become the authority. You’ll know about coming trends way before others just because most people don’t do this.

]]>http://mikerayburn.com/predicting-future-easy-way-part-1/feed/0A Perfect 2017: Part 4: Seven Secrets To Faster Goal Achievementhttp://mikerayburn.com/perfect-2017-part-4-seven-secrets-faster-goal-achievement/
http://mikerayburn.com/perfect-2017-part-4-seven-secrets-faster-goal-achievement/#respondTue, 14 Feb 2017 04:41:09 +0000http://mikerayburn.com/?p=3229This a proven, mega-successful system you can use forever. By now you’ve got a set of about 10-11 goals listed and you’ve created plans for the larger, more detailed goals. Our final step is to speed up the process, right? This is a list of ways to achieve your goals faster than you ever thought possible.

I suggest copying them each into a document and saving them, adding this post as well. Use them whenever you set goals.

This a proven, mega-successful system you can use forever.

By now you’ve got a set of about 10-11 goals listed and you’ve created plans for the larger, more detailed goals.

Our final step is to speed up the process, right? This is a list of ways to achieve your goals faster than you ever thought possible.

1. Write each goal using the three “P’s” – Personal; Positive; Present Tense. That means use “I” or “My,” make them positive – don’t use “don’t” or “not,” and write them as if they already exist – Not “I will earn $75K in 2017” but “I earn $75K in 2017.” In my live events I explain how this effects the sub-conscious mind but for now trust me, it works.

3. Identify the Limiting Step.Then focus your attention on that step. In every plan there is one step that defines how fast (or even if) you will achieve your goal. What step does everything else hinge upon? In my example from last week it would be either landing new clients or learning new skills. Once you do either of those your leverage for either a raise or more commission is stronger.

4. Write down your list of eleven goals every morning. This is one of my favorites because it’s so easy and works so well! Every morning take 3-5 minutes and write down your list of goals. This puts them front and center in your mind.

5. Develop a “30-Second List.”What are your life goals? Can you name your top three life goals in 30 seconds or less? Most can’t, if they have them at all. If you can’t, how in the world can you expect to achieve them? Set three big, awesome life goals and memorize them. Then think about them, keep them as a mantra.

6. Identify the critical goal.From your list which goal, if achieved, would cause the others to happen, too? For instance, if you have goals for a vacation, a new car, a higher income, giving more to charity, etc, focus your time on the higher income because, with a higher income all the other goals are easy.

7. Visualize your goals.This is amazingly powerful. Choose a goal (or an important event) and imagine it complete. In our example goal let’s say you have a meeting next week where you’re asking for a raise. You’re nervous about it. Take ten minutes or so to lay down on your back and relax deeply (don’t fall asleep). Pretend you’re in a place you love. Now, picture this meeting going perfectly. Imagine yourself walking in, shaking hands and feeling strangely confident. Imagine sitting down and then every detail of the conversation going perfectly. And most important, imagine exactly the result you want. Feel the exultation at achieving the goal! Do this multiple times before the event. This technique alone can be worth thousands of dollars and amazing life changes for you.

I have more of these secrets I’ll share at another time.

The important thing is you now have my Virtuoso Goal Achievement System… Use it. It really works!

]]>http://mikerayburn.com/perfect-2017-part-4-seven-secrets-faster-goal-achievement/feed/0A Perfect 2017 Part 3: Make A Plan For Your Goalhttp://mikerayburn.com/perfect-2017-part-3-make-plan-goal/
http://mikerayburn.com/perfect-2017-part-3-make-plan-goal/#respondWed, 25 Jan 2017 18:32:18 +0000http://mikerayburn.com/?p=3218A goal without a plan is just a wish. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Many people have goals, few ever create real plans to achieve them. Follow the process below and you'll be on your way to real transformation. Start by writing the goal at the top of the page...

If you’ve taken action on the last two steps you now have a list of more or less eleven goals for 2017.

I want you to choose the one goal that you want the most, that seems hardest, and would have the greatest positive effect on your life if you achieved it.

I’ll give an example. Let’s say you currently make $50,000 per year and by the end of 2017 your goal is to make $75,000.

Now, follow the process below. Start by writing the goal at the top of the page.

Goal: I love earning $75,000 per year by December 1, 2017.

1. Define and describe the goal completed- What will it look like when it’s complete and fully implemented? I’ll be able to pay off debt, invest for the future, take a great vacation, give to charity. (Note: This step should make you grin.)

2. Brainstorm… The mind dump. Write down everything you need to do to complete this goal, anything that comes to mind. I could increase my skills, pick up new clients, start getting feedback to get better, ask for a raise, get a promotion, talk with mentors.

5. Work backwards to put each step on the calendar. (approximate when each step will happen – you can change them if necessary)

6. Launch!

7. Be flexible as you proceed – no plan goes according to plan.Ask, “What could change or go wrong with this plan?” Prevent or prepare for these possibilities. Solve tomorrow’s problems today.

8. Stay focused and determined.How bad do you want it? Remember that problems and obstacles are there to get you to the goal, not to stop you. If it was easy everyone would do it and it would have no value. Stumbling blocks are all stepping stones to the goal.

9. Complete the goal.(Remember, 95% done is not done; done is done).

10. Celebrate!The goal completion in and of itself is a reward. But reward yourself separately and specifically for completing this goal, in some way commensurate with the goal.

This is obviously a very general example so you need to be creative in applying the to your own goals, but it is a good template.

I advise creating a similar plan for each extensive goal you have, even personal goals… imagine a plan like this for your health, your relationship!

Whatever you do don’t let another year pass by without really going for the things you want… this system works. USE IT!

Set the goal, make the plan, and LAUNCH!

By the way, creating plans for your goals is part of my individual coaching and is a major focus of my Life Virtuoso Systems, which I am creating this year.